Looking Back on Eight Weeks in Savukoski

After excavating one of the earliest Stone Age dwelling sites in Finland for eight weeks, it was finally time to pack up and take the research into laboratories. However, it was also a great time to sum up, what had happened over these past weeks and what we had managed to discover so far. With this idea in mind, I held a public lecture about our research at the municipal hall of Savukoski and now I'll share some of the same insights here.

The last test pits were dug through snow. Photo: Jussi-Pekka Hiltunen

As mentioned earlier, our excavations were conducted at multiple sites in Sokli area around lake Loitsana in the northeastern part of the municipality Savukoski. The area is fascinating in the sense that there lies major waterways connecting the region to the Russian side and thus it's has always been ideal for the movement of population over various periods. It had also never seen any previous archaeological research besides field surveys.

The location of our research area in Sokli, Savukoski.

What we knew before about the site was largely based on the geological history, as there had been quite a bit of research done by Swedish and Finnish geologists. This research revealed that after the last Ice Age, our research area was under the large Sokli Ice Lake, which was formed between the fells and retreating ice sheet. However, as soon as the water found its way out, the lake started to dry out fast.

As the water retreated, land became available for vegetation, and plants such as crowberries and spruce spread into the area. When the trees grew into dense forests, these woods were taken over by animals and soon bigger game, such as deer, was followed by human hunters.

Last remains of the ice lake around 8620-8250 BC displayed over a modern map.

Before our research, there were four previously dated dwelling sites in the Sokli area - ranging from the early Mesolithic Malmio 1 (8070 BC) to Late Mesolithic Malmio 5 and Kaulusmukka 3 (5900-5700 BC), before ultimately jumping to the early Iron Age Rouvoiva (285 BC). While it was obvious that there would have been habitation in between the periods too, it was our task to find proof of this and close the gaps between the millenniums.

Our research area included 12 sites, out of which we researched 6 this year. These included four Stone Age dwelling sites and two potential trapping pits, although the latter two were soon determined as something entirely different and were not relevant to our research. Thus, only four remained, but they were much bigger that we anticipated.

Asbestos-ceramic. Photo: Vesa Laulumaa

It's hard to say too much about the sites themselves yet, as there is much to be determined after the excavation. It can be said though that the finds have been numerous and for example Malmio 10B alone has provided us with more than 3000 finds, including quartz flakes, scrapers and burnt animal bones.

As we're working with early Stone Age dwelling sites, the variety of finds has been quite limited and the large majority of objects can be categorized under quartz or bone. However, from three trenches we have also discovered some pieces of asbestos-ceramic, possibly of Lovozero type dated to 1900-1000 BC.

The last weeks also revealed that the Malmio 6 site, located on a small cape by the east coast of Loitsana, had quite much potential regarding stone tools, as our small test trench already contained a few chisels and axes. However, as the time was running out for this field season and the ground was covered by an early snow sheet, the rest of the dwelling site was left for next year.

As the field work is done for the time being, it'll be soon time to move indoors, where all finds are cleaned, cataloged and further analyzed. The first step will be to send our bone and charcoal samples to radiocarbon dating, after which we're again a bit wiser on the history of this fascinating area in the north. But that stage of work demands another blog post much later in winter!